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Friday, November 30, 2012

The last time star Brad Pitt and writer/director Andrew
Dominik teamed up was for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford”. That film is a long, slow burn; drifting in and out of scenes,
dream like at times. Despite the gradual, deliberate pace, there is a force
behind the narrative. Their latest endeavor, “Killing Them Softly”, an
adaptation of George V. Higgins’ novel “Cogan’s Trade”, aims for the same goal.
This time, however, they miss the mark, and instead of a steady, measured tempo,
the film sags and meanders. It goes nowhere, and in the end, even though the
story reaches the only logical conclusion, it peters out and leaves you empty.

So, do all serial killers these days need tools and snares
and an intricate system of booby traps in order to ply their trade? If the
current trend in horror is to be believed, then yes, yes they do. I was hoping
that we were going to leave that one to the “Saw” franchise, but from the looks
of “The Collection”, that’s not going to happen. Granted, both writer/director
Marcus Dunstan and writer Patrick Melton are veterans of that particular set of
films (they also delivered “Feast”), so you should expect a device or two.
Still, it’s gimmicky, and not particularly frightening.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

When John’s (Scott Adkins) family is murdered in front of
him, he sets out on a quest for to find the man who pulled the trigger, Luc
Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). His journey takes him to some dark, unexpected
places. That’s the basic plot to Universal Soldier: Day of
Reckoning, the latest installment in a franchise that began in 1992. The
film, however, takes that simple premise, and buries it beneath a big ol’ pile
of crazy. Like Van Damme looking like psychotic clown crazy.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Well Glenn (Steven Yuen) certainly showed that he really is
one tough son of a bitch in “When the Dead Come Knocking,” the latest episode
of AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. There’s no doubt why he’s survived so long, and
moving forward, no one will ever have reason to question his mettle again.

We’ll talk more about that, among many other topics, down
below, but be warned, spoilers abound. They lurk everywhere, waiting strike
when you least expect it. Proceed with caution, my friends.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

In the spirit of honesty, I’m a little bit ashamed about what I’m
about to write, but here it goes. I like “Red Dawn”. And just to be clear,
we’re talking about the unnecessary remake, not the 1984 John Milius original.
As a fast-paced, low-brain-cell action flick, it turns out that “Red Dawn” is a
lot of fun. As a movie with all of the trappings and trimmings of such a thing,
it isn’t quite so successful. There isn’t much in the way of set up, or any of
the elements that go into a traditional narrative. Here are a handful of
people—I hesitate to call them characters. Most of them have names. Hey look,
some ambiguous evil bad guys are parachuting out of the sky. Go!

Giving Academy-Award-winning director Ang Lee access to 3D
camera equipment and a modern-day fable like “Life of Pi” is the best idea
anyone has had in a long time. He plays so much with depth field, color, and
composition, that the end result is nothing short of breathtaking. Lee’s style
and mechanics are the perfect delivery system for an epic tale of survival that
borders on the world of magic realism. The heart of the story is, after all,
the tale of a young boy and his tiger bro, engaged in the quirky tale of
adventure, unlikely friendship, and an extraordinary existence. “Life of Pi”
watches like a fairy tale.

Monday, November 19, 2012

When last we left Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) on AMC’s “The
Walking Dead” he had just picked up a telephone. And that’s how he spent the
vast majority of last night’s episode, “Hounded”. Seriously, he was like a
teenage girl this week, either ear glued to the receiver, or frantically
checking to make sure the phone still works, waiting for
the-most-important-phone-call-ever.

It should go without saying that there are major SPOILERS
contained within. So if you haven’t watched “Hounded”, stop reading unless you
want a lot of things ruined for you.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

With “Casino Royale”, Daniel Craig stepped up and owned the
living hell out of the role of James Bond. After Pierce Brosnan’s turn as the
iconic British spy, which never felt like much more than a caricature of Sean
Connery, Craig’s vaguely psychotic rendition of Bond brought life back to a
franchise that had become stale. Craig plays the part with a callous coldness
that gives a gritty, real-world edge to the character.

Monday, November 5, 2012

I’m a huge Steven Seagal fan, and have been for most of my
life at this point. Films like “Out For Justice”, “Under Siege”, and “Hard to
Kill” rank among my all-time favorites, and with a scarce few exceptions, I’ve
seen every movie the man has made. Even with these qualifications, it’s getting
harder and harder to watch the man’s new work. Over the last few years he’s
become a bloated caricature of his former self, and nowhere is that more
evident than in his new direct-to-video offering, “Maximum Conviction”.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

“Flight” is less a movie about a plane crash, as you’ve been
led to believe, than it is about a man facing off with his own personal demons.
In this story those demons take the form of a severe battle with alcoholism. At
its best, “Flight” resembles a cleaned up version of “Leaving Las Vegas” with
airplanes. At the other end of the spectrum, the film is like a
made-for-television cautionary tale about the evils of drink and excess, one
that is just a little too clean, a little too easy and rosy-cheeked to ever truly
get to the point it sets out to make. What keeps “Flight” from devolving into a
full-fledged Lifetime melodrama are a strong beginning and Denzel Washington’s
performance.

“Wreck-It Ralph”, the new animated feature from Disney,
delivers exactly what you expect, nothing more. That isn’t to say it’s bad. In
a vacuum this is a fun enough movie, the visuals are good (though the 3D feels
unnecessary most of the time), and there are all the heartwarming moments you
would expect from a family cartoon. The chief problem is that, at every single
juncture, the film is predictable, and never shows anything beyond the most
obvious levels. If you have kids they’ll likely fall in love with “Wreck-It
Ralph”, and while parents have sat through much, much worse to appease their
tots, “Wreck-It Ralph” is middle of the road at best.

Going into Barry Levinson’s new horror film, “The Bay”, you
get the feeling that it could either be something really special, or fall flat
on its face. The concept is certainly strong enough. A creepy creature
infestation, unexplained fish/wildlife death, and a government cover-up, what’s
not to like? On the other hand, this is yet another low budget found footage
picture, and these are, at best, a hit and miss proposition to begin with.